Character Overview

Appearance

Yarika is a werewolfess, and always in her feral form. She resembles a wolf more than a human, with features leaning heavily towards the canine. Her form has long arms with big claws, but thin shoulders. She lacks breasts, but still has a broad deep chest regardless. Her head is without hair; just more fur. Yarika has yellow eyes, a long snout and bared fangs. She is slouched over in her normal posture, with her upper back/lower neck higher positionally than the top of her skull in the classic 'werewolf' hunch.

She is 6'5 in height with shaggy grey gur; white fur on her underside. Her feet are bare and canine in appearance; wrapped with white tape over the joints. She wears orange-beige leather shorts; torn above the knee. Her shirt is also
torn, wrapping around her chest like a tube top over where her breasts would be. She wears a circular gold pendant around her neck.

Playstyle

Yarika has a 'berserk' meter. Whenever she lands a hit on an opponent, the meter increases. Whenever she takes a hit, she loses greater of a third of her meter or a set amount. One second after she last dealt damage the meter will gradually decrease; an entire meter will be lost in 8 seconds. A successful block will be rewarded based on the accuracty and timing of the block.

Yarika's damage is related to her berserk meter. Her attacks are all relatively weak; but when aided by the buff from her berserk meter they deal a large amount of damage. Yarika also regenerates a small amount of health over time, as long as her berserk meter is not empty.

Visible Mechanic

The visible mechanic is the buff afforded by her berserk meter. If the meter is kept full Yarika is more powerful and threatening than any other character.

Core Mechanic

Breaking the defence of opponents. Because of her berserk mechanic Yarika does not fare well simply trading blows; she needs to advance on her foe and rip a large amount of health off at once. Being able to initiate and pin foes will win fights.
Yarika / Yara also focuses on getting in and out of fights while minimizing the damage she takes, and trying to keep her Berserk Meter from falling too low. Yarika / Yara is at her most vulnerable when her meter is uncharged. Getting started with her and focusing on keeping herself attacking and defending is key. A solid defense AND offense will raise the meter.

Fighter Abilities

Berserk Meter // Bloodlust

Upon landing or defending against attacks, Yarika / Yara smells the blood and becomes more enraged during battle. As this meter powers up, her agility and strength increase. Spending time completely out of combat will lower this meter, making her weaker. Successful use of Bloodlust will make Yarika / Yara a powerful opponent capable of doing massive damage. However, with no Bloodlust, Yarika / Yara is relatively slow and weak.

Reason For Existance

Yarika / Yara is an in-out brawler who can land a lot of damage fast but also take a lot of damage as well. She needs to focus on getting her attacks off and defending opponents attacks. Since she is so large, she is easy to hit and harder to defend. This means that her playstyle is a type of rushdown, and we wanted to enforce this by providing the player with incentive to be in the fray, using From the Shadows as a means to engage the enemy rather than play hide-and-seek.

Watch out for

Yarika/Yara is weak early in a fight until her meter builds up. We expect that a good Yara player will focus on defense and wait for their opportunity to strike to begin their rampage. If the meter falls to 0, Yarika/Yara is the weakest of the initial 4 characters.